Fatma Mili is a computer scientist and a passionate and effective higher education leader. Her academic career spans four universities where she taught, conducted research, and held leadership positions of increasing scope from department chair to college dean, to provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. Her career is distinguished by an unshakable faith in the transformational impact of science, engineering, and education in society and by a pioneering spirit of innovation and inclusive leadership.
At Purdue University, she led a major transdisciplinary educational incubator, implementing some of the latest innovations in curricular design, inclusive pedagogies, and scientific understanding of human motivation and human learning. The success of this initiative led to its adoption in the college of Technology and its rebranding as the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. In addition, to support STEM faculty innovation and seed trans-institutional cross fertilization, she created and led the TransSTEM Center.
At UNC Charlotte, she led the College of Computing and Informatics embracing the role of technology in society and capitalizing on its potential technological, social, and environmental impacts. During her tenure, she oversaw several successful initiatives leading to increased enrollment, diversity, and student success. She collaborated with partner colleges to create the School of Data Science.
At Grand Valley State University, she continued to promote educational innovation, equity, and social responsibility in higher education. Notably, she created a new College of Computing at the university and promoted sustainability with several new programs. Her research spans formal methods in computer science, intelligent systems, and nature-inspired adaptive systems.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with Higher Education Digest, Fatima shared insights on the future of higher education and how institutions must evolve to meet the changing needs of students and society, significant career milestone, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Fatma. What drives your passion for education and leadership, and how do you stay motivated?
I feel very privileged to have a career steeped in education and contributing to it in different capacities. Education is one of the most important institutions in any society or community. Being in a position to enlighten the minds, stretch the imaginations, and broaden the hearts of future generations, whether directly through teaching and mentoring, or through research and educational portfolios is its own reward and motivation.
What do you love the most about your current role?
On the one hand, I see my career as a continuum that has been increasingly maturing and broadening, on the other hand, it is a career that has changed and transformed many times and is still changing.
The continuity comes from the faith in the power of education to transform lives for individuals, communities, and generations. Education helps us uncover what is true, do what is good, and appreciate what is beautiful.
The perpetual change comes from the change in scope, in specific areas of focus, in methods, and in scientific and technological context.
This duality of continuity and change makes this a perfect job for me. The continuity allows me to devote all my energy to a cause I care very deeply about. The changes allow me to satisfy my need for exploration, novelty, and lifelong learning.
What do you believe are the most significant challenges facing educational leaders today, and how can they address them?
There is no healthy thriving society without a healthy thriving educational system. There is no major crisis in society that does not have either its source or its solution in the educational system. Our world faces some major challenges and is traversing a period of uncertainty and high risk. These are times when we need education and its leaders to take on the role of intellectual leaders, sense makers, and role models.
Educational leaders need the intellectual clarity to enable their institution to serve as sense makers, framing the issues, discerning the essential from the trivial and accidental, contextualizing the issues, formulating important questions, and creating venues for exploring these questions. Educational leaders need the long view to discern the overarching patterns from the minute details.
Educational leaders need the moral clarity and bravery to hold to the highest aspirations of the educational institution. They need to be responsive without being reactive. They need to have the confidence to make the tough decisions and the humility to ask for and receive feedback.
Intellectual and moral clarity and bravery are always critical in leadership positions. They are much more challenging to manifest and hold during challenging times.
Can you share your thoughts on the future of higher education, and how you see institutions evolving to meet the changing needs of students and society?
The institution of higher education has been an essential and effective engine of intellectual, social, and human development in the last century. There is a very close correlation between the health and wealth of a nation and a community and that of their higher education system. This does not mean that the system is perfect or flawless. I see three major areas where higher education is in need of evolution:
Under a veneer of stability, the purpose and mission of higher education institutions changed significantly over their history. Some of the changes were intentional and deliberate; others represented more subtle adjustments and reactions to social, political, and technological contexts and pressures. The cumulative changes can all pull in the same direction and lead to a broader, grander, more modern mission. They can also be more short-sighted reactions that divert from the bigger vision and result in a misalignment between aspirations, possibilities, and the direction taken. It is important to pause on a regular basis and re-examine our mission and purpose, adjust it as need with the long view in mind, and reaffirm our commitment to it. I strongly believe that we are at such a juncture where we need to reaffirm the highest aspirations of higher educations and recommit to them.
Accelerate the scaling. Higher education is a key institution in human and social development. To fully realize this purpose, it must be accessible and affordable for all citizens equally. In the US, in 1910, fewer than 3% of adults were college graduates[1]. In 2020, that percentage is close to 40%; it has plateaued at about 40% in the last few years. This level of attainment is unequally distributed among different subgroups. Overall, globally, the wide and equal access to quality education remains a distant goal[2]. What took us from where we were in the beginning of the century to here will not take us from here to the goal. Too many barriers remain to an accessible affordable quality education. Some of these barriers are upstream; others are internal and require our attention and actions.
Impact ownership and intellectual paradigm. The education we deliver has been carefully designed and iterated on over decades. As our knowledge grew and evolved, so did the content, especially in the sciences and technology. There is a layer to that education that is less visible and less subject to scrutiny: The mindset and paradigms with which the education was designed, i.e. the embedded assumptions, values, and approximations underlying each discipline and curriculum. These mindset and paradigms are at the root of the issues we face today: major gaps in sustainability, equity, and social justice. For higher education to take intellectual leadership and contribute to solving these existential challenges, it must examine the paradigms in our education and update them to meet the needs of today. We cannot solve the problem with the same formative mindset that created it.
What are your thoughts on diversity and inclusion? How important is it to have authentic conversations with leaders, professionals, and changemakers to create more acceptance across the globe?
We have to start from the premise that the core mission of higher education is human and social development. As such it must espouse the highest human ideals of social justice and the right to an education and dignity for every individual. When we agree with this principle, the question is no longer whether to address inequity but how. All the data shows that our ideal of social justice and equal access has not been reached yet. Globally, we are producing very significant educational gaps that mirror economic wealth[3] between countries and within countries. The wealthier the parents and the wealthier the country the higher is the educational attainment. Some countries are successful at closing the internal economic gap, illustrating the fact that it is not a fatality. If a country commits to equity in education, it can accomplish it. It is therefore incumbent upon all of us to redress this inequity; it conflicts with our mission. Conversations about the specific strategies to use and the resources required to do are very important.
How do you prioritize your own well-being and self-care given the demands of your work?
Physical activity and quiet reading time are two activities that are essential for me. I commit daily time for them.
Who has been a significant influence or mentor in your career, and how have they helped shape your professional journey?
I have been privileged by the number and diversity of people by whom I have been inspired and from whom I learned and continue to learn. I strive to learn something from every interaction and every opportunity to observe others in action, friends, colleagues, or public figures.
What has been your most career-defining moment that you are proud of?
The falls from which I recovered and remained whole.
What are your long-term career aspirations, and how do you see yourself evolving as a leader over the next five years?
I feel very strongly about the three major changes I listed under question 4. My aspiration is that we collectively make progress on all of them.
What advice would you give to individuals looking to break into educational leadership or academia?
I will defer to Simon Sinek[4] and advise to “start with the why.” That is the most important thread and everything else will stream from that.
References
[1] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cac/intl-ed-attainment
2 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.TER.CUAT.BA.ZS
4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA